5 signs you could be depressed but don't know it

In today’s busy and stressed out society, it’s likely that either you, or someone close to you, have suffered with a mental health issue.

Beyond Blue estimates around 45 percent of people will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime, and one of the most common of these is depression - with around 1 million Australian adults experiencing it each year.

But, whilst traditionally associated with low mood and episodes of crying, depression can take on many forms and, for some, the signs can be less obvious than we think.

Here we explore the lesser known symptoms and behaviours that can accompany depression...

Obsessive behaviours

Health psychologist, Marny Lishman, says that because depression is linked to feeling numb, sufferers often search for external ways to feel good.

“Things like obsessive shopping, excessive eating or drinking and other addictive type vices give people a rush of euphoria, endorphins and dopamine. It’s like a ‘hit’ and enables them to feel something and ‘cope’,” she says.

Marny notes that the problems come when the short term ‘rush’ or hit is over.

“People might start repeating the behavior, so much so that it becomes difficult to control over time,” she says.

Sexual promiscuity

Like obsessive behaviours, Lishman says that sex in the moment might be someone’s way of trying to ‘feel’ something that they perceive as positive.

“For sufferers of depression feeling a negative emotion is painful, so anything that may numb the negative emotion might seem attractive,” says Lishman

“This replaces giving any care or consideration to the longer term implications, because short term pleasure becomes addictive because it feels good.”

Binge drinking

“Binge drinking goes further than just drinking for the enjoyment of alcohol, but rather, there is an intent of drinking for the sake of drinking.”

Lishman notes that often binge drinking is a coping behavior for a negative emotion and helps numb pain.

“People with depression are often unable to regulate their emotions,” she says.

“They don’t know how to deal with negative feelings, so instead try to block them through excessive behaviours.”

Inability to make decisions and irritability

When people are depressed and anxious, they’re usually more focused on the painful parts of life and any function secondary to survival, such as decision-making, problem solving and concentrating becomes harder.

This can lead to increased irritability, as people become overwhelmed with their own circumstances and the nervous system reacts.

“The nervous system activates the “fight or flight response” which turns on physiological reactions such as irritability,” says Lishman.

“The brain perceives itself as under attack, and acts accordingly.”

Perfectionism

“Cognitive distortions such as ‘all or nothing’ type thoughts come up, which means that many people don’t think they can achieve anything perfectly so they end up not even trying,” she says.

This results in feelings of worthlessness or uselessness, and people start to falsely perceive themselves as lazy.